Does Anyone Else Want A Pink Floyd Biopic Movie

If there was a biopic movie about Pink Floyd, would you rather it be based in Syd's time, post-Syd, or both?

Without Syd, the “Pink Floyd story” would not really be worth telling, as it is just a standard “Behind the Music” type of arc with conflicts over creative control and sad tales of formerly-tight mates inevitably growing apart and falling out. In fact, even as these things go, it’s a boring example as there is little sex, violence, or debauchery to spice up the narrative.I’m not sure that a realistic biography of Syd would be all that compelling, either. There are several parallel stories (Roky Erickson, Brian Wilson*, Peter Green) of musical visionaries who, through some combination of mental illness and over-consumption of psychedelics, burned themselves out of their own bands. It’s more a sad tale than an interesting one.The advantage a Floyd story based around Syd would have, I suppose, is the hook of the remaining band’s eventual tribute and acknowledgement of Syd in Wish You Were Here. But would that sentimental coda be enough to justify the whole story?*About whom the recent film Love & Mercy was made, to little notice.

What is your review of Pink Floyd - The Wall (1982 movie)?

Ok, so thousands of people have analysed this movie to death over the years, but that won’t stop me.The Wall is a brilliant, psychedelic, haunting story about the life of a rock star, mental degradation, the horrors and lasting impacts of war, and more.It has very minimal dialogue - the movie is pretty much run by the lyrics of the album, and glimpses of Pink’s life and his inner psyche.The movie is an autobiography of Pink’s life, starting from his childhood, when he lost his father in a war, and had to bear with an overprotective mother, and a terrible education system. He grows up to become a rock star, and yet faces troubles because his wife cheats on him, and he feels alienated from the rest of the world. He pictures each trauma that he has ever had as “bricks in the wall”, which contribute to the wall he can build to isolate himself from others, as they only cause him pain.He decides to build a figurative wall to protect himself from the rest of the world, and this results in him losing his mind. This is only made worse when his managers inject him with drugs so that he can perform live onstage. Then, his troubled nature leads him to adopt a Hitler-like alter ego, and harass the minorities in the audience by “rounding them up against the wall”. People get beaten up, raped, etc. In the end, Pink becomes like the force that killed his father and started his cycle of pain in the first place.He then realises that what he’s doing is wrong, and hosts “a trial” in his mind to understand if he has been guilty this whole time. The verdict of his inner jury is to “tear down the wall”, and he does so, only to return where he started.[The character Pink is based on Roger Waters (losing his father to war, troubles with wife, etc.) and Syd Barrett (an ex-Pink Floyd member who went insane - that shaving off eyebrows scene was based on him).]The movie conveys the worst case scenario of the psychological impact of war, and the endless chain of violence and cruelty, which only continue to traumatise generation after generation, unless someone has the sense to tear down the wall, unite, and prosper. The movie warns people of this cyclic nature, so that they can realise the consequences of their actions ahead of schedule, and avoid the trap.It is basically a great, great movie :)

Are there any biopics, not documentaries, made on Syd Barrett?

I know of none, fortunately. I say “fortunately,” because he is perhaps the least understood and most reluctant Rock Star, for lack of a better phrase. Yet to this day, more than fifty years after his departure from Pink Floyd, and more than ten years since his death, speculation about Roger “Syd” Barrett still abounds. A bipoic would probably cast an over-the-top method actor like Jared Leto to portray him as a raving, strung-out acid casualty who could barely hold his guitar as his bandmates desperately tried to prop him up onstage for yet another gig, while managers and record company executives looked on in horror.All that can truthfully be said of him since walking away (literally) from his music career is that he wanted nothing more than to be left alone.

What bands/musicians do you think deserve a big budget biopic like Queen or Elton John?

My personal criteria for a biopic would not necessarily be someone who’s big or legendary, but who has got a story to tell:A Frank Zappa film would be bonkers.Blue Oyster Cult.DMX.Fleetwood Mac could be a 2–3 season cable TV show. No way to contain all that drama in a mere 2-hour movie.Toto. Yes, Toto. Their backstory is infinitely more interesting than their records.A film about the Beatles AFTER the breakup would be a novel idea. You could intertwine the individual lives of McCartney, Lennon and Harrison as they navigate the world after being “born again” in a manner of speaking.The Rolling Stones during the making of Exile on Main Street.